[1.12.x] Kerbal Alarm Clock v3.13.0.0 (April 10)

[katateochi]

I've only just started using this mod and now I can't think what I'd do without it. It's so useful!

I have found a slight bug and I can't see it mentioned. You can use the alarm clock to switch to an asteroid that you've not yet captured. If you go into the tacking station and start tracking a new asteroid the game won't let you switch to it. But if you create an SOI alarm for the new asteroid, then click on the alarm and hit Jump to Ship you can switch to the asteroid.

[TriggerAu]

I've only just started using this mod and now I can't think what I'd do without it. It's so useful!

I have found a slight bug and I can't see it mentioned. You can use the alarm clock to switch to an asteroid that you've not yet captured. If you go into the tacking station and start tracking a new asteroid the game won't let you switch to it. But if you create an SOI alarm for the new asteroid, then click on the alarm and hit Jump to Ship you can switch to the asteroid.

Thanks katateochi, I didnt realise that was a loophole

There is not a lot of API access to things in the TS, but I think I can use the object lifetime to know which objects can be flown and therefore jumped to, from some fiddling. Will try and work that in

[BudgetHedgehog]

Surely you could just use something like 'if the ship is one part and it's a Potatoroid, disallow ship jump' or something? Because restricting by object lifetime could have consequences for newly launched ships (click 'launch' from the VAB, immediately upon load, switch to another. The first ship is mere seconds old so would you still be able to jump to it?).

[TriggerAu]

Surely you could just use something like 'if the ship is one part and it's a Potatoroid, disallow ship jump' or something? Because restricting by object lifetime could have consequences for newly launched ships (click 'launch' from the VAB, immediately upon load, switch to another. The first ship is mere seconds old so would you still be able to jump to it?).

Surely... my favorite programming term, usually I use it like this "Surely I can just x, y, z... damn!"

My comment above doesn't really flesh out all the details from my looking, but the parameter I'm thinking of is the Vessel.DiscoveryInfo.referenceLifetime . Once you own an Asteroid this gets set to infinity (which is the same as for all vessels you make, even ones on the pad), unowned asteroids it contains how long they will remain in the game before getting cleaned up.

I did fiddle with the one part idea at first, but it wont match the current KSP behaviour, as once you "Own" a potatoroid KSP lets you "fly" the ship - even after you undock. I'm gonna do some more fiddling before I lock that in, but if you have any other ideas I can have a play with shout em out.

Maybe its just easier not to have the jump to asteroids feature in KAC, theres not much point in it TBH, and if its grabbed by a vessel its not an Asteroid anymore its a vessel.

As I type the more I think I'll just remove the jump button if the vessel is an asteroid. Thanks for the prod

[BudgetHedgehog]

Surely... my favorite programming term, usually I use it like this "Surely I can just x, y, z... damn!"

Haha, yeah I know the feeling. I'm no programmer but I meet that phrase often in my life I didn't know that about ship lifetime, you taught me something today. But it does sound a bit more convoluted than 'disallow jump if the ship the alarm is for is an asteroid', so you're welcome, I guess?

[John FX]

Just to let you know, I tested out the 64bit windows version (which seems to be getting released next update) and KAC crashed it (proper CTD)

Would you be interested in the log file or do you want to wait for 0.24 to actually be out before looking at stuff like that?

As I type the more I think I'll just remove the jump button if the vessel is an asteroid. Thanks for the prod

I`d agree with this. The only time I could think it useful would be if you wanted to put a node in the future of a roid for an alarm or check it for SOI changing but I don`t see that happening often enough.

Edited July 7, 2014 by John FX

[JWag]

I found a little bug (maybe?): I created an SOI alarm for an asteroid/Kerbin encounter, and then realized I wanted the alarm to fire a few days earlier. When I typed in "24" in the "hours" field in the alarm edit window, the alarm time changed correctly, but the "hours" field still said "0".

A little bit more info: I went back to edit that alarm because I realized there wasn't anything I could do until after SOI anyway, but even putting "0" in the hour field wouldn't reset the hours. I didn't try putting a minus sign before it. No big deal; deleting that alarm and creating a new SOI alarm is easy peasy.

Also I just discovered that KAC will give me launch times for when an orbit intersects with KSP. I can see the countdown in KAC. A countdown, for a real reason, not just arbitrary because it sounds cool. It beats SWAGging the liftoff time and the resulting wasted delta-V to match orbital planes. This makes me very happy. Thanks!

[TriggerAu]

Just to let you know, I tested out the 64bit windows version (which seems to be getting released next update) and KAC crashed it (proper CTD)

Would you be interested in the log file or do you want to wait for 0.24 to actually be out before looking at stuff like that?

I`d agree with this. The only time I could think it useful would be if you wanted to put a node in the future of a roid for an alarm or check it for SOI changing but I don`t see that happening often enough.

The log would be useful John FX if you still have it. I think I'll have to find some tie to have a go at my mods in 64bit shortly.

Thanks for the info

[TriggerAu]

A little bit more info: I went back to edit that alarm because I realized there wasn't anything I could do until after SOI anyway, but even putting "0" in the hour field wouldn't reset the hours. I didn't try putting a minus sign before it. No big deal; deleting that alarm and creating a new SOI alarm is easy peasy.

Also I just discovered that KAC will give me launch times for when an orbit intersects with KSP. I can see the countdown in KAC. A countdown, for a real reason, not just arbitrary because it sounds cool. It beats SWAGging the liftoff time and the resulting wasted delta-V to match orbital planes. This makes me very happy. Thanks!

Yeah, once its got the extra days stored you wont get them back with 0. I know what that one is and should have it sorted soon, just plugging away at this asteroid thing first.

Glad you like the intersection one. I find that most useful, although I do need to test it some more in more situations/on other planetary bodies - I have seen some weird behaviour once or twice

[Drew Kerman]

Maybe its just easier not to have the jump to asteroids feature in KAC, theres not much point in it TBH, and if its grabbed by a vessel its not an Asteroid anymore its a vessel.

As I type the more I think I'll just remove the jump button if the vessel is an asteroid. Thanks for the prod

Damn this was the best thing about the new version IMO! I don't see why it needs to be removed when it does no harm to gameplay. If you don't want to jump to the asteroid don't click the button... if you do jump to the asteroid... well you're now looking at an asteroid. So? Your game won't explode

[BudgetHedgehog]

well you're now looking at an asteroid. So?

"Ok, well, here's the asteroid.. it has a lump there.. hmm, it's pretty far away from anything.. I wonder how big it is.. uhh... well, nothing more to do here I guess, back I go"

Name one useful thing you can do while looking at an asteroid.

[Drew Kerman]

Also I just discovered that KAC will give me launch times for when an orbit intersects with KSP. I can see the countdown in KAC. A countdown, for a real reason, not just arbitrary because it sounds cool. It beats SWAGging the liftoff time and the resulting wasted delta-V to match orbital planes. This makes me very happy. Thanks!

Whaaaat? That's awesome! Before this I had to align my view in the TS with the orbital plane using Mun's orbit line then pan around to align the target orbital plane and timewarp to see when the red KSC dot (thx to RT2) was under the orbit. This is way better

"Ok, well, here's the asteroid.. it has a lump there.. hmm, it's pretty far away from anything.. I wonder how big it is.. uhh... well, nothing more to do here I guess, back I go"

Name one useful thing you can do while looking at an asteroid.

I can name several, but they are mainly for roleplay purposes so I suspect I'm a minority here with that. Regardless the point is that jumping to an asteroid won't do any harm so there's no reason to have this ability removed

[jrandom]

Name one useful thing you can do while looking at an asteroid.

Dream.

[TriggerAu]

In my usual way to try and keep everyone happy I'll make it an option - probably "Allow Jump to Asteroids". although Jump to Asteroid as the best feature... I dont know if I can agree to that

How could I kill a Dream? or the Awesome?

[diomedea]

In my usual way to try and keep everyone happy I'll make it an option - probably "Allow Jump to Asteroids". although Jump to Asteroid as the best feature... I dont know if I can agree to that

How could I kill a Dream? or the Awesome?

I strongly support the use of options, every players likes things differently (and, unfortunately, some even moan if they don't have things implemented their way). Really like this attention you have .

BTW, that orbit intersect launch time feature...Excellent! (I would never have found about it wasn't for JWag post).

[Drew Kerman]

In my usual way to try and keep everyone happy I'll make it an option - probably "Allow Jump to Asteroids". although Jump to Asteroid as the best feature... I dont know if I can agree to that

Thanks, and now that I know about the orbit intersect timer that's my new best feature. Jump to asteroid is still second-best tho - I have to do it a lot and the manual way of editing a quicksave to point to the vessel number would really suck with 200+ asteroids to keep track of

[katateochi]

*snip

As I type the more I think I'll just remove the jump button if the vessel is an asteroid. Thanks for the prod

Nice 1, that sounds like the way forward!

[Agathorn]

Name one useful thing you can do while looking at an asteroid.

Dream.

Which is the most useful and powerful thing a human being can do.

[John FX]

Nope, turns out I was wrong. Your mod works fine. It`s either a different mod or some weird interaction (I did have many mods, yours was just the one that stopped the crash if I removed it)

on a fresh install and just your mod it works fine.

It seemed to crash when KAC tried `Adding DrawGUI to PostRender Queue` so it may be some other mod isn`t playing nice. I`ll keep adding mods until something breaks but have yours be the first. Then I might find the conflict.

http://www./download/42cxq1bskoxv4sl/outputlogs.zip

[Starwaster]

Nope, turns out I was wrong. Your mod works fine. It`s either a different mod or some weird interaction (I did have many mods, yours was just the one that stopped the crash if I removed it)

on a fresh install and just your mod it works fine.

It seemed to crash when KAC tried `Adding DrawGUI to PostRender Queue` so it may be some other mod isn`t playing nice. I`ll keep adding mods until something breaks but have yours be the first. Then I might find the conflict.

http://www./download/42cxq1bskoxv4sl/outputlogs.zip

You have two toolbar DLL's installed. I say delete the entire toolbar mod, download the very latest one from the toolbar mod thread (sorry, don't have the link handy) and install that. Don't ever allow a duplicate to be made and don't allow it to be overwritten unless you know 100% for sure that the one you want to overwrite with is the very latest.

Non platform assembly: E:\Backup\personal\John\Software\KSP_win\GameData\000_Toolbar\Toolbar(1).dll (this message is harmless)
Non platform assembly: E:\Backup\personal\John\Software\KSP_win\GameData\000_Toolbar\Toolbar.dll (this message is harmless)

Edited July 9, 2014 by Starwaster

[TriggerAu]

It could be something to do with two mods using the same PostRenderQueue position - its just a number after all and most of us hardcode it. See how you go with Starwasters suggestion, and will be interested to know.

I'll have a crack at 64 bit as soon as I can.

[Tortoise]

U still haven't done the asteroid thing

[TriggerAu]

U still haven't done the asteroid thing

Which Asteroid thing is that?

[Drew Kerman]

just wondering if there was any reason for the discrepancy between the close approach shown via KSP and the close approach shown via KAC

[TriggerAu]

Most likely the maths calculating the closest approach is slightly diffn. Although with there being a man node on the flight path KSP is giving you the distance after the man node - even if its 0dv this may have an affect.

Would be really interested to know what the closest approach was in this pic after 2:38